1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to audio and video production circuitry and more particularly to the delivery of digital audio signals in a graphics controller architecture.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
There are a variety of types of audio-video products available today; for example, televisions, video cassette recorders, and CD ROM systems. In many of these systems, the video and audio data signals are processed digitally. Digital processing is employed largely due to the availability of a variety of methods for manipulating and transforming the data signals. These methods allow flexible and comprehensive control of the audio-video data.
In a typical audio-video system, the processing and delivery of video signals is controlled by hardware completely separate from the hardware that controls the processing and delivery of audio signals. The traditional approach of providing separate audio and video subsystems has evolved due to the inherently different characteristics associated with the processing and delivery of audio signals as opposed to the processing and delivery of video signals. For example, the data rate and modulation schemes of audio signals are typically very different from the data rate and modulation schemes of video signals.
A drawback of providing separate audio and video subsystems is the amount of hardware required. It is desirable to minimize the hardware requirements associated with audio-video products.